Streampaw woke before dawn to something cold trickling on her. She noticed her eagle-feather nest was soaked. She sneered at it and tried to settle back down. She remembered she was on the dawn patrol anyway, so she stretched and got up. She saw Pebblespots under the Ice Boulder waiting for everyone to wake up. The Ice Boulder was a boulder on the right side of the camp used for meetings. The leader's den was under it.

"Streampaw, would you wake up the dawn patrol members?" Pepplespots asked.

"Sure," she replied.

She headed to the warriors' den. She was the only apprentice going. The members of the patrol were Sunclaw, Darkfrost, and Patchmask. She took them to the deputy, awaiting instructions.

"Go check on the IceClan-Wilderness border," she instructed. The Wilderness was what they called the area outside of the Clans. For as far as the eye could see, it was mountains inhabitable by even IceClan. They checked it because of the animals that lived in it.

"Wait!" Streampaw objected, not thinking. "Can we go to the IceClan-RainClan border instead?" She immediately regretted it.

"Hmm," Pebblespots thought, "we've neglected that border, haven't we? Good thinking, Streampaw."

Whew, she thought. That was close.

Streampaw almost had a nervous breakdown when they were at the border, but she did a good job hiding it so she wouldn't be asked questions. She came uncomfortably close to running when she smelled the RainClan tom's scent - she just realized she didn't find out his name - but it was on the inside of RainClan, therefore completely not worth reporting. "It seems okay to me," she stated.

"Fine with me too," Darkfrost meowed. "Then, RainClan cats are usually smart enough to stay in their borders."

"That's true," Sunclaw agreed. "But we always need to check, just in case. Our priority is StoneClan." It was true; every other day, at least one StoneClan cat was found trespassing. RainClan had that problem too. Was it because there was so little prey in their tunnels?

"Well, it appears that that's all. Nothing bad," Patchmask reported. No wonder there was big talk about her becoming the next deputy, as Pebblespots was starting to age.

"Then let's go ahead and leave. I'm ready to hunt." Streampaw knew if she didn't have a reason, she would seem eager to leave.

"We'll need to ask Stormfrost, remember," Patchmask reminded her.

"I know."

When they returned, Stormfrost told her she could hunt with another apprentice, and her best friend, Dawnpaw, volunteered.

"What was that last night?" Dawnpaw asked playfully.

"Just another apprentice that wanted to sit with me," she replied.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay, well, just making sure..."

She nudged her friend. "I don't like him!"

"Sure, I believe you, since you agreed to meet him tonight."

She became scared. "Who else heard?"

"No one. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."


That night, after everyone was asleep, Streampaw crept to the tree she was supposed to meet the apprentice at and she dunked herself in the river that marked the border. This river just happened to fork right at the Gathering Tree, and it served as a perfect border for all three Clans. He was already there.

"Hi," he greeted. "I thought you wouldn't come."